Thursday, July 9, 2025

Short stuff!

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1772:

Edgar and friends: I was delighted that despite having the plumber work in our small powder room, bumping the magazine rack, Edgar hung tight yesterday, and Junior made his way to high up in the space between the ceiling and the wall behind the sink, pretty much as safe a spot as you can find! However, this morning, I could only see Junior, up in his high spot and Edgar and Miss Teeny were gone. I have this image of them attending a meeting behind the walls, maybe having a good meal, before coming back to try again in the bathroom.

As for the plumbing problem…a minor repair…in terms of the fact that the two screws that hold the tank to the base had corroded, and needed to be replace and resealed, so it didn’t take long. But my husband had made the joke that it would probably cost a certain hefty amount (we have long sworn that if we took the car in to a repair shop, or a pet to the vets, no matter how minor we thought the problem, the cost was going to be that specific amount.) Well the minor repair cost just $20 less than that joke amount. But it’s supposed to last 10 years and be thankful we have the resources to pay for it. And again gratitude to Junior for alerting us before the leak was worse or damaged the floor.

I did get in 2 walks yesterday, although the second was only 20 minutes. And I did have time to participate in the co-writing zoom meeting and got over nearly 700 words written. But it seemed the rest of the day was pretty much back-to-back phone calls. We watched (rewatched) a movie by Sophia Coppola Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Probably hadn’t seen since it came out over 20 years ago. Very quirky, quiet, and gentle movie set in Japan about a fading actor there to make commercials and the young wife a young hot-shot photographer, stuck in the same hotel for a week. I love this sort of enigmatic quiet film. We rented it for under $4 in prime, definitely worth it.

Today, having done regular cleaning and I will be taking my first walk and then heading off to clinic to see if glasses can be adjusted. Then as usual on aThursday, I have mid-day zoom call, scheduled meeting afterwards, and then somehow squeeze in second walk.

Another hotter day…so going for bright red flowers.

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